We Are Likely to Be a Polarized Nation for Some Time

Republicans have become more extreme by virtue of the fact they haven't moved while the Democrats and progressives have marched steadily left.

June 9, 2014 2:51 p.m. ET

William Galston cuts through the confusion by asserting that over the last few decades Republicans have moved further toward the right than Democrats have moved toward the left ("Americans Are as Polarized as Washington," Politics & Ideas, June 4). The problem is that his analysis is based on the faulty premise that the political center in America is static. When progressives own the culture, however, they can redefine where the "center" is.